


need

by machellex



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-19
Updated: 2016-07-19
Packaged: 2018-07-25 11:17:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7530604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/machellex/pseuds/machellex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Aang… he needs me.”</p><p>Aang looks at her so cautiously, the permanent furrow between his brow etching further into his skin, evidence of his dedicated years of peace and labor. His voice is low and careful, “Do I not need you?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	need

**Author's Note:**

> b/c i am forever salty that zutara was not canon so ensue kat/aang breakup & zutara reunion

“Aang... he needs me.”

Aang looks at her so cautiously, the permanent furrow between his brow etching further into his skin, evidence of his dedicated years of peace and labor. His voice is low and careful, “Do I not need you?”

Katara feels her insides crumble because she knows, in a way, he does. But in a way he doesn’t quite understand--that there is more to love than simply nurture, and if that weren’t the case, she would love everybody. Because she is the sort who wants to nurture everybody. 

And she does love Aang. She does. Just not in the way he deserves. Not in the way _she_  deserves.

Her heart is elsewhere, and she cannot take care of Aang forever. She had known this day would come, that she could not repress her feelings and pretend what they had was enough to keep them going.

And Zuko... he _needs_  her. In that way that she feels it in her bones, rushing through her blood, coursing through her veins--it is in the same way that she needs him. 

“I’ll still be around,” she offers instead, a little too half-hearted for both their likings.

“All the way in the Fire Nation,” Aang murmurs with bitterness. He grits his teeth and looks away for a moment, his gaze on bustling leaves before shooting her earnest, curious, _sad_ eyes. “Why didn’t you say something earlier? Why didn’t you tell me? All these years, you led me to believe... you _love_ me.”  


“I wanted to,” Katara says. “I thought I could.”  


“So you lied.”  


Katara is silent. She has no excuse to offer, not one that he deserves. She thought she could fall in love with Aang, thought the warm feelings she had for him would be enough, that it could grow and flourish in the way that it did for many couples. But it was hard to do so, she realized, when everything she did for him came in half-hearted emotion, when her thoughts were often drifting to the lone Firebender, heart lurching, wondering if he was faring out there all alone. 

“I’m sorry.”  


Aang looks at her, despair written in his eyes and the lines around his mouth. He moves his robes aside as he forces his feet to the ground. “Sorry isn’t enough.”

“I know,” she whispers.   


The Avatar closes his eyes. “Zuko is my friend. I don’t want to hate him.”

“Don’t. He doesn’t deserve that. It’s not his fault.” Katara tilts her head, her voice stuck in her throat as she coughs out the next words. “Hate me instead. Please.”  


A somber smile edges at his lips, his breaking heart flashing through his eyes as he opens them to gaze at her. “I love you, Katara. I could never hate you. And one day, I’ll forgive you. Just... not today.”

“I’m sorry, Aang.”  


He sighs, gently shaking his head as he takes a few steps away from her. “Just go, Katara.”  


And she does. Because she has no place to ask for forgiveness, no place to really say sorry. It was her fault for pushing it too far, for leading him on for too long. And one day, hopefully, they can build their old friendship back to the way it was--when he was twelve, and she was fourteen. But today is not that day. And now is not that time. 

But she is no longer going to force a relationship that never should have been.

* * *

When he sees her, he almost doesn’t quite believe his eyes. 

His body is at a sudden standstill, his heartbeat erratically moving too fast because the last time he’s seen her--the last time _they’ve_  seen _each other_  was a year ago when he had traveled to the Southern Water Tribe for Sokka and Suki’s wedding, and she was adorned in heavy blue furs and.... 

She had been with Aang, then. She had always been Aang’s, never his. 

“ _Do you love him?”_  


_“Enough.”_  


“Katara?”  


She smiles at him softly, and somehow, he _knows_. “Zuko.”

“Katara,” he says again, except this time, it is not a question, only a confirmation that she is here, _physically_  here, _emotionally_  here. With him. 

She doesn’t give him enough time to collect his thoughts--he’s always been too much of a thinker, anyway--before she is running into his warmth and closing the distance between them. Her arms loop around him, and he buries his head into the crook of her neck and takes in her scent and the taste of her skin. 

He can hear her sniffling against his robes, can feel her grin against his skin, and his arms enclose around her waist just a little bit tighter. He’s afraid that if he lets go, she’ll disappear right out of his life, and he can’t imagine feeling like that again, can’t imagine another five or ten years without her by his side.   


Slowly, she removes herself from his embrace, but only enough so that she has room to cradle his face between her palms, her skin so tan against his. Her thumb moves to tenderly line the edge of his scar, watches as he closes his eyes in submission to her touch. 

She leans forward to stand on her toes until her lips are pressing kisses against his face, his eyes, his beautiful scar, his lips so soft and eager against hers. 

“I missed you,” she breathes, voice hitching.   


“It’s been a while,” he agrees, opening his eyes.   


Her hands move to brush strands of his dark hair. “Your hair’s grown.”

“Time will do that.” His ember gaze lingers on her face, fingers lining the curve of her skin. His voice is soft, nervous and unsure and _afraid_  that she will disperse into the air in the second it takes him to blink. “You’re really here. You came to me.”  


Katara smiles. “I need you. I love you.”

“And you’re not going anywhere?”  


“Only wherever you need me to.”  


“I need you here,” Zuko says quietly. “Beside me. With me.”  


“Then here I’ll be.”


End file.
